List Baby List… List Baby List…

Everyone here remember the “Tootsie Roll” song? Now sing the title of this post to that song… Dip Baby Dip… Awesome. 

Anyway back to what I meant. Mr. A and I have now been officially looking for a house for about 6 weeks, unofficially I have been looking for a house for over a year. Heck let’s be honest I have been looking at houses to buy since I started my career in the Real Estate field 5 years ago. I obsess over new listings, and up until late last year felt that there were almost too many great options. 

Fast forward to today. I am at a loss. There seems to be a conspiracy amongst sellers. They are all holding off their listings. There is CRAP on the market right now. Other than the first two homes that we had found promising, and the house that got away (still a sad panda about that one BTW), there is just nothing out there.

We have looked a few other stray houses here and there. We have been unsuccessful at even making an offer on a house. Mr. A has become SUPER picky about every house we look at, worst of all he is picky about things that I could care less about. Like the infamous, “yea, but where do I put my TV” or “my sofas don’t fit in this living room” and all I can think about is, we will get a new sofa, or we will figure out a way to watch TV I am sure of it. I care about location and location and maybe an updated kitchen at this point, but that is not even a deal breaker.

Mr. A I believe is trying to make me happy by agreeing to look at smaller houses in the area I like but in the end I always wind up heartbroken because our frigging sofas won’t fit… Really!? I have since told him I want him to stop wasting my and our REALTOR’s time. I know he wants the perfect first home as well so I am trying not to freak out on him all the time when he acts like that. But Grr.

So really, the reason I am writing this post is not to bitch about my sweet husband, but to bitch about sellers. COME ON PEOPLE MOVE!!!!! I know you want to list your adorable house in the perfect neighborhood at the best price ever today! List baby List, so I do not freak out on my husband. I want to find a house already dammit!

This is really starting to blow, just in case you could not tell.

Just because we all like to look here is the link to the house with the small living room that I like but he does not like: http://austinhomesearch.com/Search/Details.aspx?li=287947&or=1&cp=5

This is what happens to your hair after a month of house hunting

Check out my grey!!

I went grey super young actually. I am going to get all of this covered up tonight though. Don't worry, I am not a total mess just yet!

My first house hunting heartbreak

Well I had a really crappy house hunting experience this weekend. How about you? Nothing? Oh well then I am jealous of you all.

As mentioned in my previous post I was all excited about a new house that came on the market like Tuesday or Wednesday. I did not let on how pumped I was about the house, but let me tell you I was. This house was totally awesome and one of those that I would have had to it when we moved in houses. All the colors, the layout, the kitchen, the yard, all of it was just what I/we wanted. 

Sunday we planned to go to the open house with our REALTOR. We got dressed and as we were heading out the door, we got the text from hell. The house went under contract. Not taking backups. It was gone. Never even got a chance to find out if I really loved it or not, never will know if it was perfect or not. It will just never be an option. And like that I started to cry. It was the most indescribable feeling. Like someone had just ripped a piece of your favorite desert out of your hands after you cooked it, decorated it, planned a party for it and planned out where all your furniture would go in it,  started to take a bite. Just sucked. It was the first time I had loved a house that much and just like that I had to just get over it. It is so sold; it’s not even on MLS anymore.

So there you have it. I am heartbroken. First time home buying not so much fun. 

Then I got in the car with the funniest lady ever, Kelly, who at 8 months pregnant is even funnier. She informed me that “fun” is not the word she would describe home buying. She told me that that is bull shit and fun is not the word she would use. She said it sucks and I should just get used to it sucking. But that there is hope, that one day a house will come on the listings and I will race over to see it and just know that it’s the house for me. And we will find our first home. I needed to hear that. I needed to know I was not cray cray for crying over this house. 

So now I know. Home buying is going to be full of highs and lows, and although more tears are in my future for sure, I hope they are more happy then sad.

On to the next house…

We will not compromise (just yet)

 Y’all, we are still looking for a house. Y’all this is really stressful and scary. Y’all, I am not going to let the stress/scariness get to me! I will not give up on the “dream house.”

So to catch you all up here is where we stand. We had two houses we liked. But after not being able to decide if either were worth compromising on, be decided neither were worth it… just yet at least. 

 

One house we were going to have to knock down a wall and live in very tight quarters, and the other house as cute as it was had some updating that needed to happen and a kitchen that needed to be moved around quite a bit. Both of these factors were making it really difficult to be happy and totally pumped about either house. And that is when a light bulb went off! We don’t have to compromise (just yet)! We have time to look for more houses! We have four months before our lease is up, and we can be a bit picky. Don’t they say that it is a buyer’s market right now? Well if that is the case we should be able to find lots of great options, without having to compromise on much. We both really want a perfect house for our future family and neither of these was perfect. Since we have time we concluded it might be worth it to see if that perfect house is out there.

Just as soon as we made that decision a new house came on the market that is totally adorable. We are going to look at it this weekend. It is still not totally perfect, but it reminded us both that there are going to be more options, and possibly options with less compromising. We have the luxury of not having pressure and I think it will behoove us to wait and see if there are better houses out there. 

It reminded me of when I bought a wedding dress. Talk about scary. That was, other than my car, the most expensive single thing I have bought. I was terrified I was going to make the wrong choice. I felt rushed and pressured because I had my mom and sister with me. I bought a dress in one weekend. It was on sale, and it was absolutely stunning, and I do still love it. But could there have been better buys out there? Could there have been better dresses out there for me if I have not let the stress and pressure get to me? I am sure of it. I will never know though. From that experience I am trying to grow and learn. This time I have done research, I will know every angle and I will not have any pressure. This is supposed to be fun right?

So getting back to the fun I wanted to recommend some great websites I have been stalking for home décor, organizational, and furniture inspirations: 

Houszz.com – This website has like a million pictures of all sorts of fabulous homes. You can search by room, décor, style pretty much anything you want and you can “pin” your items on to their boards or your Pintrest board. This brings me to my next: 

Pintrest.com- In case you live under a rock, this is the new(ish) website where you pin all your ideas and inspiration on to your categorized boards. I love it. 

Younghouselove.com – I love me some John and Sherry home décor on the cheap.

Hope you guys all feel inspired like I do. I will let you know when I know when we have found the perfect home!

Our first house hunting trip was a TRIP!

Some of you have asked how the house hunting is going. I thought I would show you how great it is! After going to see about 15 houses in one day this past weekend with our REALTOR we have found two really great options. These are not for sure houses we are going to bid on but they are houses that give us a lot of hope and direction. We were worried we would not be able to find anything in our price range and in the area we liked. Turns out we are in great shape really!

First we have a house in a great neighborhood in central Austin: http://austinhomesearch.com/Search/Details.aspx?li=283703&or=1&cp=1

This house, we would knock down the wall in the living room to open it up but pretty much everything else is totally perfect! The kitchen is a dream! We love the location, the walkablity to things we like and it is a great investment. It is really the perfect neighborhood for Mr. A and I as it is less than 5 minutes walk to bars, restaurants and best of all the Alamo Draft House! Our commutes to work would only be about 15 minutes.

Secondly this house is also in a pretty good neighborhood but a bit further out of Austin. For those of you who don't live in Austin it is about three exits north on the same highway as the first house: http://austinhomesearch.com/Search/Details.aspx?li=279845&or=1&cp=1

It is actually really close to where we live now, right by the Domain. The area is a bit more transitional and petty crime is higher in this area than the first house. BUT this house has potential of gaining a lot of equity because it is right by a lot of new development. Also it is much much much bigger and Mr. A and I would not have to change ANYTHING about this house. It is exactly what he and I would have picked. We would just have to hold on to this house a bit longer to make money on it.

So there you have it, the two that are in the running as of now. For now we are going to look at the neighborhoods we like, get to know the areas, and see if other listings come up as the month rolls along. The great thing is we are not in a rush!

Let me know if you have any thoughts!

This is growing in my office...

The official Obama Chia pet. it was a gift from a great friend. What do you think? I think it is hilarious!

But I feel I really need granite countertops.... No?

Want vs. Need is a huge factor in home buying. You have to analyze every house for what it would offer you and what you can “settle” for and what you cannot. Mr. A and I gave each other the assignment to make a list of wants and needs for the house hunt. We have a meeting with our REALTOR tonight so we want to be able to help her in the hunt for the perfect house. 

We are looking all over the city, but our main focus is in north Allendale and northwest Austin. The main difference is going to be space. In Allendale the houses are going to be smaller, but have a lot more character and cost a lot more per square foot and in northwest Austin they will be larger, newish and in general make more sense.  What I mean by “makes more sense” is that the floor plans in the older homes don’t flow the way the newer homes do.  So knowing this I felt that it was important to have two sets of wants and needs the “inside the loop” list and the “outside the loop” list. We also have two different price points we are looking to spend. In Allendale and central Austin we can spend much more and still get way less. Outside of Austin, we expect to get much more for much less money (I am talking 100K difference here people) All of this is going to come into play as we make our decision.

First off the “inside the loop” need list: 

1)      2 bedrooms with an office space

2)      1.5 bathrooms

3)      Over 1200 square feet

4)      Fenced in yard

5)      Needing updates ok, but no major renovations needed to move in

6)      Safe neighborhood

7)      Highly walkable (meaning we want to be able to walk to restaurants and bars from our house)

8)      Quiet neighborhood. Currently our street is super busy with lots of barking dogs!

“Inside the loop” want list:

1)      3 bedrooms

2)      2 bathrooms

3)      Updated fixtures

4)      No carpet, all wood flooring (laminate is ok)

5)      Big backyard

6)      Quiet street, not a lot of traffic

7)      Easy access to all major roads

8)      In Allendale or 78757 area

9)      Over 1600 square feet

10)   Good schools

“Outside the loop” need list:

1)      3 bedrooms

2)      2 baths, 2.5 if two story house

3)      Over 1700 square feet

4)      Fenced in yard

5)      Established neighborhood, no new construction

6)      Easy access to major highways

7)      Good schools

8)      Updated fixtures, and flooring

“Outside the loop” want list:

1)      4 bedrooms, or flex space for a kids play room

2)      Updated appliances

3)      Updated bathroom and kitchen

4)      No carpet

5)      Rainwater retention system, other green updates

6)      Quiet street

7)      Lots of young families and couples

8)      Easy access to shopping, night life

9)      Do not HAVE to take 183 to work

10)   Large master bedroom and bathroom

I am sure as we really begin to look Mr. A and I will come up with more and relax on other items on this list. But for now this is what we are looking for. For those of you who don’t live in Austin you should know we have pretty much NO SHOT of getting into the neighborhoods we like in Allendale for the price we want to pay. We shall see what we can do about that. 

I am so excited to get out there and see what we can find. Wish us luck!